You, Again
by ezriaforever-b26
Summary: It's summer 2015 in beautiful New York City. Aria hasn't spoken to or seen Ezra in three years. She graduated high school, left Rosewood, and said goodbye to him. But is that it, is it really that simple? Can you ever just 'say goodbye' to the love of your life?
1. Chapter 1

**Summer 2015**

"Lauren, are you home?"

Aria walked into her New York apartment after a day at her internship. It was a few weeks into summer break, and Aria been studying at NYU for three years, and her roommate Lauren had become a pretty good friend of hers. It seemed surreal to Aria every single day that only a few years ago she'd been practically pulling out her hair, stressing about how she didn't think she'd get into a school at all, let alone one that fit her as perfect as New York University did. Now, despite all of her worries, she had the full package college experience, but it was nearly over. She was rooming with a girl called Lauren, who she'd met through work over the past year at a cafe in a busy part of town. Aria quickly realized that the two went to the same school, and even shared a few classes. They realized that they liked similar music, but their main bond was the fact that they were both new to a town and a school where they didn't know anybody. She was no Spencer Hastings, or even a Hanna Marin, _or_ an Emily Fields, but she was a friend nonetheless.

Lauren _was_ pretty ditsy, though, it had to be said. She was also gorgeous. Drop dead gorgeous, in fact. Her blonde hair was seriously long, Aria didn't even think that hair could actually be that long, or shiny. It was kinda ridiculous. Her number one priority in life was a cross between boys and her appearance, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. For Aria, however, it meant that whenever they went out to lunch, or even just walking to a class, no one even looked her way. Every boy was instantly drawn to Lauren. It didn't reflect badly on her, though, not at all. Lauren was one of the most genuine, nicest people she had ever met. Her friendship group at college was very close knit. She had a few friends from classes and then friends of friends and then there was Lauren. If it wasn't for their mutual job, Aria had to admit that she would probably never have ever met a girl like her, but she was glad that she had. Despite her possessive attitude towards the bathroom and the amount of hours it took her to get ready, Lauren was a great girl, and Aria couldn't really wish for a better roommate for her college experience.

"Lauren?" Aria repeated as she took off her coat and dumped her bag on their kitchen table. "Hellooooo?"

No answer. Aria walked into the kitchen of their two bedroom apartment and threw her bag down onto the table. She'd had a tough day. Her internship at a local magazine had started off great. She had high hopes and her management team was great, they seemed really eager to let Aria write some pieces and try her hand at photography, too. However, it seemed that that was only to entice her in. Her most important task today, for example, was making coffee for everyone in the office. It was humiliating for Aria, and she wasn't sure how much more she could take of the redundant, boring tasks.

The air was ridiculously warm, which was expected for late June. It was a beautiful day in the city, but Aria was not appreciating the heat. She fumbled with the air con, balancing her iced coffee under her arm as she did so. She finished the job and allowed herself to sit down at the table, before taking off her light cardigan and sipping on her drink. She looked in her bag and pulled out her laptop, turning it on and loading up a word document. She scrolled through the various things she'd been working on for the past few weeks. Her aim was to build up some kind of portfolio, a display of work to use when she eventually tried to apply for jobs after college. That's the only thing that kept her sane at this internship right now. She had to get this experience under her belt so that she would stand out when trying to get something permanent. _You won't be making latte's forever,_ she told herself as she fixed a typo and saved an article that she had been working on for quite some time now. She shuddered as she read the headline, but also felt a certain sense of relief for writing it out.

After a few minutes, Aria drained her coffee and shut down her computer, before looking over at the pile of laundry that Lauren was supposed to have put away today. She sighed heavily and ran her hands through her hair, wiping at her damp forehead. It was too hot for this, and it wasn't her job, so she left it and started to look at what food the two girls had in for dinner. Just as she began to wonder where Lauren was (her first ideas were mani-pedi or off with a boy), the keys rattled in the door and it swung wide open, cutting off Aria's thoughts.

"Aria? Aria are you home?"

Aria spun around as soon as she heard Lauren's voice echo through the apartment. "I'm in the kitchen."

Lauren walked into the room and dropped a few bags onto the kitchen table. Surprisingly, they were all groceries. Usually it would be a few sturdy bags with designer labels printed on the side, so this was very different. Lauren had a panicked look on her face, and she was double checking a piece of paper in front of her, cross referencing it with items in the bags.

"Is everything okay?" Aria eyed her carefully as closed the refrigerator door. Lauren made no reply, too focused on the task she was currently undertaking.

"Lauren? Hello?"

She lifted her head and looked at Aria. "What?" She practically snapped, but quickly stopped herself. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just really stressing. Do you know how to make lasagne?"

Aria laughed. "I hope it's vegetarian," she said, winking at her. Lauren shot her a look but nodded.

"Of course! But seriously, do you?"

Aria shrugged. "Um. I think I made one in high school or something, but it's not that difficult. Do you have all of the ingredients?"

Lauren fiddled with the bags again and chewed on her lip. "Yeah, yeah I think so."

"Well, just search it online, it can't be too hard. I'll help you if you want?"

"No! No. I appreciate the gesture but I gotta do this myself, I need to prove that I can actually cook something.."

Aria laughed quietly to herself as Lauren began to put away all of her groceries, knowing full well that they would end up ordering pizza at midnight with a kitchen full of smoke.

"How come you're cooking anyways?"

Lauren paused after putting sheets of pasta into the cupboard. "Oh, shoot, I forgot to tell you. Okay, so, do you remember the date I went on last week? Well, I didn't think it had gone too well, I mean, we didn't have _that_ much in common, but damn was he cute.. Anyways. Um, I ran into him today and I just took the plunge and invited him over for dinner tonight. I want you here, though. He's really smart and so I'm guessing he likes books like you do so if it gets awkward you can salvage the conversation and get me laid. Deal?"

Aria's eyes were wide with all of this new information, but she nodded slowly, not wanting to let her friend down. "Um, sure. But I don't wanna be third-wheeling.."

"Please, Ar! Please. I promise if it goes well and we get all romantic or whatever you can leave straightaway. Just excuse yourself, it'll be fine. And I'll give you a twenty to go and get some pizza or fro-yo or whatever you want! Pleeeeeease!"

Lauren was now inches away from Aria's face, holding onto her hands with her own.

"Fine."

And with that, Lauren dived onto her. "Thank you! Okay, now get out, I have four hours until he gets here so I gotta cook this."

"Fine, fine, I'm going. Good luck. The number for the pizza place is on the fridge if you need it."

Lauren gave her a glare but Aria just laughed and retreated to her bedroom.

* * *

Right on cue, the door buzzed at 8pm and Lauren's date had arrived. Lauren had dressed up fully for the occasion. She'd decided on a short, tight pink dress, which left very little to the imagination. She wanted to go all out and impress him after worrying that the last date they'd had hadn't gone as well as it could have done. Aria, not wanting to outshine her roommate, toned down her outfit for once. She wore black skinny jeans and an oversized sweater, keeping things casual.

"Oh my god, he's here. Okay, okay. How do I look?"

Lauren turned to her and smoothed down her dress. "You look great," Aria answered honestly. "I mean it. He's not gonna be able to take his eyes off you."

Lauren smiled and gave her a hug, giving Aria enough time to ask, "hey, what's his name by the way?"

"Just wait a sec, I'll tell you when I introduce you, it'll look better." Aria gave her a weird look and was about to speak up when Lauren shushed her and spoke.

"It's open," she said, buzzing her date into the building. His footsteps got louder as he approached their apartment and then his hands knocked loudly on the thin door.

Lauren looked back at Aria and smiled, and then opened the door.

Lauren smiled as soon as she saw him, and Aria hung back slightly, not able to see him properly yet. He was dressed smart, but casual. Aria noticed his dark blue denim jeans, and a smart dark green jumper. Lauren blocked his face, but she could see his shoes, which were pretty boring, standard black, and the bottle of wine that he held in his left hand.

"Hey, how are you?" She heard him say, and Aria froze, her whole body filling with a distinct feeling of coldness.

"I'm good, I'm good. Um, I want you to meet someone," Aria heard Lauren say, and alls Aria wanted to do in that moment was jump out of the window and get out of this situation fast. She heard Lauren make smalltalk with him about her but it was all blurred, she couldn't hear any of it as she backed away slightly.

"Aria? Where has she gone?"

This time it was him that froze. "Sorry, um, did you just say Aria?" She heard him say, the panic in his voice evident. He had realized the situation, too.

"Yeah! Weird, right? It means melody or something.. Aria?"

Aria was shaking as she slowly walked back into the hallway.

"Here she is!"

It was only then that Aria got a full look at Lauren's mystery date, from head to toe. She knew his outfit was awfully familiar, and his face was one that she had looked upon so many times before, his eyes ones that she had got lost in time and time again. His lips ones that she had kissed, and been kissed with a thousand times.

"Aria, this is Ezra, Ezra, Aria."

The two of them stood still, frozen and transfixed on eachother. It must have only been a second before Aria spoke but it felt like a lifetime. She saw Ezra open his mouth to speak so she quickly bit her lip and walked towards him.

"Hi, I'm Aria. It's nice to meet you."

Ezra's mouth opened slightly, and his lips curved into a small smile. He couldn't take his eyes off of hers.

"Ezra.." He said quietly, and their hands met in a simple handshake, but it was way more than that. As soon as they touched, as soon as their skin re-connected, memories and past-touches were all re-ignited in their minds. Aria quickly pulled away and looked down, breaking the contact and quietly coughing, trying to catch her breath. Lauren was still oblivious, and led Ezra into the kitchen. Aria could feel his eyes burning into her as he walked past her, but she continued to stare at her feet and lagged behind.

* * *

 **So check me out actually posting something for the first time in like fifty years hahaha. I know I have a lot of other stuff I need to update and/or finish but this is actually something that I have been thinking about for a while. It will be a longer story with different chapters, and I want to take my time with it.**

 **Hopefully it is pretty self explanatory in terms of what is happening, but basically to clear up the basic plot, Aria is three years into college and hasn't seen Ezra since she left Rosewood for New York. They suddenly find themselves meeting again after all this time, and they struggle with how to deal with it! Let me know what you all think :)**


	2. Chapter 2

"I still can't believe how random it was, seeing you today! I mean, what are the chances we'd both be at the same coffee shop?"

Ezra sipped on a beer, widening his eyes as he listened to Lauren's repetitive chit-chat. In all honesty, he couldn't stop thinking about Aria, and couldn't stop looking over towards her, at any chance he got. He thought he must be crazy. Here he was, on a date with a beautiful woman, in a gorgeous dress, all dolled up for _him,_ yet all he could think about was Aria, who he absolutely was _not_ on a date with, who sat in her comfiest, most casual attire, hair all let loose and fuzzy socks on her feet.

"Yeah, weird.." was all he could think to say. Small talk with Aria was never this awkward, in fact it was never small talk at all. Their conversations flowed, it was effortless. Silences were never awkward, and one look could say more than words ever could.

"Honestly, Aria, it was one that we never go to. You know the one on Sullivan Street? I'd heard great things but never tried it so I decided to stop by 'cos I had to pick up some flowers for my Mom right next door," she turned to Ezra, almost giving him a side-note, some background info, "it's her birthday in a couple days and she's coming into town so I thought I'd try and do something nice for her." She paused to take a sip of wine. "She loves flowers. I don't know if it's her age but whenever I go and visit her she has like a bunch in her kitchen.. Anyways, so I stopped for an iced latte and there _he_ was at the register.. weird right! Do you go there often?"

Aria had been silent all evening. Both she and Ezra had limited their contact, both physically and verbally. Lauren hadn't noticed a thing, of course, more interested in Ezra and her appearance than anything else. Her hands were constantly messing with her dress and re-positioning her hair, so when Ezra slipped a look in Aria's direction, she had no idea.

"Um, sometimes. Usually I prefer this little place in SoHo, I love the vibe in there, and it's crossed with a-"

"A bookshop? I know where you mean! God, I love that place." Aria suddenly piped up. She couldn't help herself, but regretted speaking as soon as she closed her mouth again. "Sorry."

Ezra now had an excuse to turn his full attention to her, and looked her deeply in the eye. "No, no. It's great, right? Surprised I've never seen you in there."

Aria focused her attention on her glass, not wanting to have to look him in the eye. It had been too long, she was doing so well. She didn't even think about him _that_ much anymore..

"Um, yeah. I mean I don't go there _all_ the time.. It's better for when I have spare time. I grab a book, grab a coffee and sit and relax. It's not great for when I have projects due, I get way too distracted," she managed a small laugh. "It's full of characters, right?"

Ezra turned his chair around a little, completely turning himself towards Aria. Lauren maintained a small smile but she was obviously disappointed that he was no longer listening to what she had to say.

"Definitely! Have you seen that one guy," he started a smile which developed into a smirk, and then a laugh, "I swear he's there every single day, at least when I'm there, and he'll basically order one coffee and that's it, for like the whole day! I'm talking 8, maybe 10 hours. And they're open late on a Friday, too, so.."

Aria had to put down her wine glass from laughing. "I know who you mean, with the hat? And the barista's are literally checking on him every single hour, asking him if he wants a refill-"

"And then he gives that big speech about how he thought this place was different from all those," Ezra raised his arm and did the speech marks, "'big corporations'-"

"And he calls them thieves, have you heard that one?" Ezra nodded, the two of them laughing together, totally naturally. "Wow, I haven't been there in a couple weeks. I gotta go back." Aria wiped her eyes with the edges of her sleeves, the laughter proving too much. She took another sip of her drink and caught Lauren's eye, who was mouthing at her to leave. Her heart dropped and she felt terrible, instantly, guilty for talking to Ezra. This wasn't her date, it was Lauren's. He wasn't hers anymore. She hadn't made the effort to speak to him in three years, and she certainly did not deserve this free pass to him again.

"Wow," Aria pondered out-loud, "um, too much wine." She laughed and put down the glass, before picking up a serviette from the table and dabbing around her mouth. "It's late, and I have a lot of work to do for tomorrow so I'm gonna call it a night."

She could instantly see the relief in Lauren's face as she stood up and tucked her chair in under the table. Ezra's face, however, looked very sad. His eyes lost the spark that had been there just minutes before, and she felt equally as terrible that she was apparently the cause of that.

"Are you sure?" He said, trying to act casual, but urging her silently to stay. She looked from him to Lauren, and nodded her head.

"Yeah.. Um, it was nice meeting you." She could barely look him in the eye as she tried to keep up the pretense. She grabbed her phone from the table and gave Lauren a small smile before heading upstairs.

* * *

Aria flumped onto her bed, rubbing her eyes with her hands as she tried to get her head around what had just happened. What the hell was she doing? It had been three years since she'd last talked to Ezra, and she could remember the day like it was this morning. There had been texting after they'd last spoken, but cancelled plans made that fade away. There was the occasional Facebook like, the even rarer Facebook comment, but after six months all contact had pretty much come to a halt.

She had no idea how it had happened, and she thought about it a lot more than she'd care to admit to. She had tried to keep contact, but she kept chickening out, afraid to make things awkward, worried that she'd blurt out how she really felt and he'd just reject her, and tell her that they had to be strong so she could enjoy her college experience. Then it was too late. There had been no contact for way too long for either of them to pop up and say 'hey,' or comment on something cool the other had been up to.

She knew he'd moved. He'd posted a Facebook status about it a few months ago, but only a few people had commented with 'good luck' - nobody had asked where he was moving to. Aria, of course, was way too shy with him at this point to ask him herself, and he never updated his location, so she had no idea where he had relocated to. She could remember the day she saw that update. Her heart broke a little more, because now she no longer knew where he was. He wasn't tied to Rosewood anymore, he'd moved on, to somewhere she didn't even know. She'd thought about it. A lot. The most likely option was California, his favorite city. She imagined him sitting on the beaches, sunlight shining on him as he wrote and maybe even thought about her.. Or teaching a class, sharing his passion with a younger generation, doing what he did best.. But, it would be a _huge_ move for him, and she was sure he'd have posted so much more online about somewhere he loved so much. She would have never thought for a second that he'd be moving to New York, right under her nose, and without telling her about it. But then again - why would he say anything? They hadn't spoken in years, and if she was too afraid to talk to him, why would he be any different towards her?

It was too quiet in her room, and she could hear Lauren laughing through the walls. Their apartment was small and the walls were thin, and if she wanted to, if she listened really carefully, she'd be able to pull apart the conversation and hear every single word.. almost. She resisted this crazy urge and turned on her TV, watching some re-run of a random teen drama that her sixteen year old self would have no doubt loved.

Her laptop sat on her bed, untouched since she'd arrived home hours ago. She wasn't lying to Ezra, she did have quite a bit of work to do. Before dinner, she'd checked her emails and had received a message from her boss. She'd asked her to update some data for the company's website. It was a female lifestyle magazine, and covered everything from recipes to fashion, to home style and even gardening. She'd briefly explained what she had to do, as well as a couple of other tasks, including updating contact details on the website and uploading some photographs that she had shown her a couple of days ago. She'd taken them of some new decor in her room and was showing a few of her fellow interns when her boss had overheard and asked to see for herself. Her reaction was good, but Aria didn't expect anything other than for her to ask for another iced latte. It was a surprise, therefore, when she added in the email that her photo's would be a 'great addition' as background pictures for an article on vintage home decorations.

It took Aria about an hour to do everything she had to do. She felt good, like she was actually getting somewhere with this internship, and perhaps it wasn't such a waste of time, after all. She was about to log off when a thought crossed her mind, and she wondered if she should load it up to work. _That_ document that she had been adding to for almost three years. The incomplete article loaded and she was face to face with a picture of herself, Spencer, Hanna and Emily. The words were like drops of ice on her skin, and she couldn't deal with it right now. She changed her mind and shut it down, and it was it was almost 11 when she finally logged off and got comfortable on her bed, trying to engage in whatever was now on the TV. She felt calmer as soon as she placed her computer on the floor, and in a strange way, after being so productive, she was in a much better mood than she had been earlier on. But then she thought about Ezra sitting just meters away from her and her stomach got all tight - she suddenly felt very on edge. She could hear Lauren laughing, and sighed, but then she heard chairs moving, and the kitchen door opened. Aria opened her door a tiny bit, hoping to overhear how they ended their night, to see what they said to eachother before he left. She knew it was a bad idea, because whatever she'd hear would not make her happy in the slightest. There was a lot of laughing, admittedly on Lauren's part, and she couldn't hear what was being said on the other side. But then she went cold, and could hear footsteps on the few steps that led to this area of their apartment. The floor squeaked as the two of them walked upstairs. She couldn't believe what was happening.. would he really do this to her? She saw Lauren's blonde hair first, then the overwhelming bright pink flashes of her dress, and so she shut the door tight, her heart breaking. She couldn't see him like this, she couldn't let them see her, she couldn't watch him walk into her roommates bedroom, she just couldn't do this. She still wanted him, and as much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't physically stop it anymore. She'd buried it for so long, tried to conceal her feelings and push them deep into the back of her mind. It was a lot easier to not think about him, and not constantly dwell on him when she wasn't seeing him.

Still fully dressed, she quickly pulled on her gym shoes, the nearest things she could find, and her jacket from the back of her door. Armed with her headphones, she heard Lauren's door close, so she opened hers and made her way quietly to the door. She heard loud laughter from Lauren and Aria felt sick, so she grabbed her keys from the bowl and quietly opened her own door, and it took everything she had not to loudly slam it in frustration. She put her hood up and tried not to cry as she escaped the apartment.

It was cold, the night had a familiar chill, one that she always noticed at this time of year. Even after a hot summer day, the air was still cold, still sharp, which in some ways made Aria feel a lot better. She managed to flag down a cab, grateful for the city that never sleeps, and hopped in, greeting the driver.

"SoHo, please."

* * *

 **tbc**

 **I want to also thank you for your lovely reviews on the first chapter! You guys are always so nice and I really appreciate it :) So excited to see what you think of this next part.**

 **Also if you wanna follow/talk to me on social media I'm at adoringezriax on Twitter and adoringezria on Tumblr.**


	3. Chapter 3

"SoHo?"

The driver turned to look at Aria and she nodded. She was trying to compose herself, trying not to think about what was happening upstairs. It was only in that moment that she realised she hadn't even thought about where she was going, she had just said the first place that she thought of.

"Yeah.. SoHo. I can direct you better once we're there."

"Alright," he said, as the cab began to move. "You know it isn't far, it's a nice walk."

Aria looked out of her window as the car moved quickly, passing house after house. "I know," she replied, "but not at this time of night."

The driver nodded. "Smart girl," he said seriously, "you gotta be careful in the city." The silence resumed in the cab and as they got further away from her apartment, she still hadn't given him proper directions. "So," he began, "where in SoHo? Or haven't you figured that out yet?"

Aria let herself laugh slightly. She knew exactly where she wanted to go. "Um, Crosby Street. Do you know it?"

"Yeah, I know it. Won't take me long."

Aria thanked him and sat back in her seat. She decided to go to the coffee shop that she'd spoken to Ezra about earlier. She wasn't lying, she loved it there. She hadn't been in a while because of all of the projects she'd had to get done before summer break, but now she finally had a little time to relax. She didn't want to stay out late, but she knew she had the option if plans changed, and she couldn't bring herself to go back home. It was Friday night, so the place was open until 1am, compared to 10pm every other night. She rummaged in the pocket of her jacket, grateful for the spare change that she'd dumped in there today. She counted enough for a caffeine fix and then decided to check her phone. It was almost eleven thirty,and she tried not to think about what was going on at the apartment. Of course Ezra had been with other girls, just like she'd been with other guys. Admittedly, for her, it was only one other, but still, there _had_ been others. Ezra had probably had tons of girlfriends since he'd last seen Aria. He was great, handsome, smart, and Lauren was a shining example of how appealing he was to women. She didn't even know him properly and she'd already fell for him.

"This it?" Aria was pulled from her thoughts as she realized that the car had stopped moving. She looked out of the window, squinting in the darkness but recognizing the building immediately.

"Yeah, thanks. Here you go." She hopped out and walked over to the window to give the driver her fare. He shook his head and held up his hand.

"Don't worry about it," he smiled, "you seem like you've had a rough day. Stay safe, kid."

Aria was taken aback, but smiled and thanked him, appreciating his kindness. He drove away and Aria found herself alone on the street, and took a moment to look up at the building, complete with a glow that radiated from behind the closed doors onto the empty road. All of the lights were still on, and there were a few people sitting and reading, even at this hour. The noise from her shoes on the stone cobbles was the only sound as she reached the entrance and pushed the door open, no one even batting an eyelid as she closed it behind her. She loved that about this place, you could hide out here, you could be _invisible_ , if that's what you wanted.

"Can I just get a latte please, thanks." She perched herself on a stool next to the counter, her back facing everybody. She paid for her drink and began to slowly sip on it, trying not to think about what was going on back home. She heard her phone buzz and it was a message from Lauren which she didn't even bother to read. She knew Lauren had no idea that she knew Ezra, but even so, she couldn't handle her braggy texts right now, so she put the device on silent and concentrated on her caffeine.

"Are you okay?" The barista approached Aria slowly. Aria had seen him before, but never really spoken to him unless she was ordering. He was the type of person she'd always smile at politely, but they probably wouldn't consider eachother to be friends. Aria was a little shocked, therefore, that he had made contact, but kinda grateful of the company. She'd thought that she wanted to be alone, but at 11:30 on a Friday night, alone isn't a great place to be.

"Yeah.. yeah. I'm okay," she lied. "Thanks. Just needed a fix." She held up her cup and the two shared a laugh, but he clearly wasn't buying it.

"Okay.. here's the thing. I know you're lying. You only just had enough loose change for your drink, meaning that you didn't come here prepared. You're here on a Friday night when most people would rather be at a club, or asleep."

Aria looked at him carefully. "Wow, you're very perceptive," she told him.

"Look," he continued with a smile, "whenever I've seen you in here you've always looked so happy. Right now you seem distracted, worried.. I'll give you a refill, free of charge, if you load all of your troubles onto me." As he said the last words, he threw his cloth over onto his shoulder and pointed at himself.

Aria raised an eyebrow. "You can't do that."

"I can when my boss makes me work the Friday night shift. I can give away all the free coffee I want to."

"No," she laughed, knowing he knew exactly what she meant. "I can't load all of my troubles onto you, I won't. It's not fair. I appreciate the offer, but.."

"But nothing. Now what's wrong?"

Aria sighed heavily. She realized that she should probably be annoyed and offended that this guy she didn't even know wanted to know her business, but she felt like she didn't have anyone else right now that she could talk to face to face. It was hard not having her friends right around the corner from her anymore. Spencer was miles away in London, Hanna was residing in California, and Emily was back in Rosewood. They texted daily, of course, but it was different to talking over popcorn on Spencer's bed, or over coffee in the Brew. There was only so much you could get across in a group chat. She still hadn't told them about seeing Ezra again, and knew that a Skype call was urgently needed, but right now, her new barista friend was as good as it got.

Aria carefully eyed her company, unsure of how to move forward. She knew full well that she would absolutely regret this on Monday morning when she came to grab an iced tea on her lunch hour, but she decided to be reckless. She could get her coffee at work in the cafe, which, granted, wasn't the best, and the vibe was nothing compared to here, but if worst came to worst, that was what she'd have to do. She was sick of bottling everything up, so maybe this was a sign. Maybe this was the stranger who she was destined to load her troubles onto.

"You know I don't need the free coffee, right? I work in a cafe myself.."

"Impressive," he said, "you're really trying to get out of talking about it, aren't you?"

Aria laughed before sighing heavily. "Fine, but you're gonna regret it. My life is just one big old disaster. She thought for a moment, and then opened her mouth to speak, still thinking hard about what she was about to say, when she was interrupted.

"Aria?"

The voice came from behind her, so she spun around and there he was, walking out of the men's bathroom.

"Ezra?"

She realized that she was staring for way too long, so she quickly turned back to face the guy who had been so kind to her. "Sorry, um.."

"It's Aaron."

"Aaron, right. I'm sorry,um, I need to talk to him."

He nodded. "Alright, _Aria_ ," he said, a slight hint of annoyance in his tone, before grabbing his cloth from his shoulder as he started to wipe the surfaces, moving his attention from her to them. "It's cool. I'll see you around."

Feeling awful about one encounter but confused and somewhat relieved about another, Aria bit her lip and turned around to Ezra. He was still standing, staring at her, and she didn't know what to do. She decided to stand up and walk over to him, coffee in hand, and he gestured towards the window where a couch lived, with a beverage already sitting there, probably his, Aria guessed. The two sat down, neither saying a word, until she had to break the silence.

"What are you doing here?"

Ezra took a sip of coffee and looked around. "Well, when we talked about it earlier, I got a sudden craving for it, so-"

She scrunched up her face and shook her head. "No. Why are you _here_? What happened with Lauren?"

He put down his cup and turned, so his body was facing her. "What do you mean, what happened? Nothing happened, that's exactly the thing. We have nothing in common, we-"

"So you didn't go up to her room?" The puzzle pieces started to come together in Aria's head.

"What? No! No, no, no. I left, Aria. Wait, do you think something happened between us?"

Aria could hardly look him in the eye. "No.. I just.." His stare was piercing, and his smirk was just plain annoying. "Fine. Yes. I heard her walk up the stairs and then I heard her laughing and talking-"

"But did you see or hear me?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

Aria sheepishly looked down. "No.."

Ezra could barely contain his laughter. "Aria, I'm a little offended, I thought you knew I wasn't the kind of guy to sleep with a girl after two dates." The easy conversation that they had shared earlier, the playful banter, it was flowing again, just like it always had. She glared at him, but there was a flirtatious glow in her eyes.

"Hmm, yeah, but you do make out with them in the bathroom when you first meet them," she snapped back, a smile playing on her lips before she realised what she'd said and looked down into her cup, her cheeks flashing red. She knew this was wrong, her closest friend right now, her _roommate,_ was crazy about him, but she couldn't seem to help herself.

"Touché, Montgomery, touché." He laughed, lightening the mood, and she managed to laugh, too, and they shared a look which Aria had missed. One she hadn't experienced in years. It was like their eyes began to keep missing one another. One pair of eyes would look up, and the other would shoot back down, focusing on something other than eachother. They'd suddenly gone shy, and in many ways it felt like they were meeting for the very first time.

"So," Aria began, taking a deep breath, "you're in New York.." She was relieved to finally be able to drop the pretense that they had suffered through at dinner.

"Yep. Moved here a few months ago. I live in Newport, the rents cheaper, and the drive isn't too far for work every day." Ezra sipped on his coffee after he spoke, as if it was the most normal thing in the world to have moved here, literally an hour away from her front door.

"So are you writing again?" She inquired, hoping he'd finally been able to live his dream after the two of them split, but he shook his head, a smile still on his face.

"No, I'm teaching. Giving high school another go."

"Wow, really?" She put down her cup and turned so she was fully facing him. "Ezra, that's great." Aria was genuinely pleased. She knew how much he loved to teach and she always thought that she had ruined it for him.

"Yeah, I'm teaching English at a high school just outside of Brooklyn. They're good kids, the syllabus is great, I got pretty lucky." His smile widened.

"I'm so happy for you," she told him honestly.

Ezra smiled, but then bit his lip, and he looked down, his smile fading a little. "I know what you must be thinking," he said with a sigh.

Aria looked back at him, knowing she didn't need to say anything.

"Why I didn't tell you I was here. I mean I knew you were still in college, still at NYU."

Aria nodded. "So..? Why?"

He sighed and held up his hands a little, at a loss for words. "I'm sorry, Aria," he told her. "I just didn't think you'd wanna talk to me," he told her honestly. "Neither of us had made any contact in so long.. it just felt a little.."

"Awkward? Scary? Unnatural?" Aria stole the words right out of his mouth.

"You get it. I mean, my date with Lauren wasn't the best experience of my life, but I'm so glad of it. I never thought I'd see you again."

Aria tried to speak but somehow couldn't, and so she looked at her coffee, and the silence resumed as they both began to drink again. Aria carefully studied Ezra out of the corner of her eye. She knew that look, he wanted to say something else, but knew he probably shouldn't. He had finished his coffee and had began to peel at the packaging, concentrating on peeling back the label of the cup.

"Say it." Aria couldn't hold back. He didn't seem surprised at what she said, he just continued to pick at the paper of the brown polystyrene cup. He started to destroy the branded label, dispersing odd bits of paper onto the coffee table in front of them. He tried to maintain the silence, but he could feel Aria's piercing eyes burning into him. Sighing, he dropped the cup, and allowed his body to move so that he was parallel to her. He was right, her eyes were glued to his, and he shook his head, smiling, wiping his palms on his pants.

"How the hell do you still have this effect on me?"

Aria didn't respond. She continued to stare him down, but it was clear that his words had impacted on her. _I think I should be asking you the same exact question,_ she thought to herself, trying to steady her breathing. She'd thought about this moment a hundred times before, of what she would say if she were to ever see him again. Whether it was a summers night in a coffee shop just like this, or on a street corner in the snow, she had pictured the exact conversation that they'd share. She thought that she had it all planned out. But you can't plan life, you can't rehearse it. It suddenly hit Aria that nothing about the two of them could ever be pre-prepared, they just happened.

Ezra moved his body closer to hers on the couch, reducing the distance between them.

"I know what I want to say to you," he whispered, before briefly glancing behind him to check that nobody would intrude on this part of their conversation, "but considering I just went on a date with your roommate, and we haven't spoken in years, I think it would be slightly inappropriate."

Aria surprised herself with her confidence. "I don't care," she replied, her voice just as low as his, "it's been three years, Ezra. I want to hear it."

Ezra kept his nerve, and moved even closer, his face inches away from her own. Aria had a strong sense of deja-vu from their first reconciliation after their first fight all those years ago. Suddenly she was 16, sitting in a car in the woods in the middle of the night with her English teacher, forgiving him for childish issues that seemed only a distant, silly memory right now.

"I missed you so much," he breathed, dropping her gaze as soon as the words left his mouth. There, he'd done it. He'd successfully opened the can of worms and they went everywhere, all over eachother, ruining their clothes and adding tension to the air.

Aria's breath caught in her throat as she accepted the words she'd been wanting to hear all night. It frustrated her that he had suddenly begun to find the couch a lot more interesting than her eyes, so she gently took his chin between her fingers and used all the strength in her hands to lift his face up, his eyes naturally finding hers again.

"I missed you too," she whispered quietly, and it was as if a weight was instantly lifted off the two of them, it flew away and both of them relaxed, still only centimeters away from eachother. Ezra lifted his hand to meet hers, and removed her fingers from his chin, opting instead to take hers in his hand and leaned in, pressing his lips to hers. They hadn't spoken to eachother in three years, let alone touched, and it took everything in their power not to run to the bathroom and engage in similar activities that they had done just after their first ever meeting, only this time in a more private bathroom stall..

They started slow, delicately, almost scared to touch one another after so long. Scared that this was a trap, that they'd be punished for caving after staying away for so long. But this was no trap, they weren't eachother's bait. They were two lost souls who had wandered alone for way longer than they deserved. They were together again, reunited at last, and damn, it felt good. Ezra's hand dropped from Aria's chin, and found her leg instead, whilst Aria allowed her fingers to get re-acquainted with Ezra's dark curls. Everything around them turned into a blur, nothing compared to what the two of them were experiencing right now. Their kiss deepened and began to get more and more intense, the two of them struggling for air, until,

"Hey, Aria,"

Aria pulled her lips away from Ezra's and looked up, her eyes locking with Aaron's who was watching them, obviously not realising what she and Ezra were doing until he'd spoken.

"Oh, I'm sorry-"

"No, it's fine," Aria lied as she tried to catch her breath. She bought her hand up to her lips and touched them slightly, before looking across at Ezra who was doing the same. Aaron awkwardly approached their table and placed a new cup of coffee next to her old one, and he shrugged.

"I forgot about your refill."

Aria could barely look him in the eye. Mortified was an understatement.

"Um, you didn't need to, um, yeah, thank you.." She was flustered and began to rub her jeans, dusting them with her palms. Aaron nodded and disappeared, and Aria's face was scarlet by the time she made eye contact with Ezra again. They stared at eachother for a few moments before Aria finally started to gather her things.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.." She stood up quickly and Ezra did the same, panic rushing through him.

"No, you don't have to go-"

Aria held up her phone after inspecting it, "No, I do. I have twelve missed calls from Lauren and five messages."

Ezra nodded, not sure of what he could say right now to make her stay. He watched her as she zipped up her jacket, grabbed her coffee and made her way over to the door. He couldn't just let her leave like this, what if he never saw her again?

"Aria, wait." He gently grabbed hold of her arm as she was about to push open the door. The cold night air was creeping through the cracks, but that wasn't the only thing sending shivers across Aria's skin. His touch was so natural, so familiar, but Aria couldn't shake the feeling that this was a bad idea. She looked down at his hand and then back at his face, into his eyes, sensing the pain he was obviously feeling right now.

"I can't let you leave again," he whispered quietly, and Aria found herself at a loss for words. She turned so she was facing him fully and took her spare hand, grazing it across his face, her eyes never leaving his.

"We need to think about this," she told him, tears forming in her eyes, before leaning forward to kiss him lightly on the cheek. She pulled away and pulled her arm free with ease, taking one last look at him before escaping into the night air.

* * *

 **AN: I'm feeling a little unsure with this story right now. I feel a little anxious as to where to go with it/what to do next. I'm just letting you know this in case I don't update for a bit after this chapter, but don't worry - it won't be too long! I just want to take some time to do some plotting and organise my thoughts!**

 **Thank you all so much for all the kind words on the first two chapters, it's greatly appreciated! Please let me know what you think of this one, too. I'm interested to see what you think of Aaron, and of course that kiss... ;) Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

Tiptoeing quietly, Aria made her way up the stairs to her and Lauren's apartment. Their building was pretty big, beautiful really. It was in a decent neighborhood and close to campus, and their jobs at the cafe. They'd only managed to afford it with help from both of their parents, and all of the extra hours that they picked up at work. The apartment itself was pretty small, but with only two of them, they managed. It had been advertised as enough room for four people, but Aria thanked her lucky stars every day that they never invited anymore people to live with them. She just about coped when Spencer, Hanna and Emily came to visit, let alone if just two of them lived there full time.

The building was ten floors, but Lauren and Aria only lived on the second. Aria quietly climbed the stairs, trying to be as quick as possible as she climbed the steps, finally reaching her door. Placing the key gently in the lock, she turned it and resumed her tiptoeing as she walked into the quiet room. Trying to be as quiet as possible, she gently closed the door behind her, took off her jacket and placed it carefully on the pegs next to the door and allowed herself a small sigh of relief for not waking anyone. Then it hit her as her phone vibrated in her pocket. She cursed under her breath before lifting it up and seeing another text from Lauren, joining the other twenty that had been building up, as well as twelve missed calls. Another call came through from her as she began to type out a reply, so she swiped right and held the phone to her ear.

"Aria? Where the hell are you? I thought you were in your room but then I went in and it was empty. I've been worried sick, do you have any idea-"

"Shhh, I'm down in the hall, I just got home."

There was silence on the other end, and then movement from 'upstairs.' They always referred to the space as upstairs, when in reality it wasn't any higher than the rest of the building. There were a few steps, and that area was home to the bedrooms and bathrooms. Lauren's door opened and Aria hung up the phone, before making her way to the kitchen and grabbing a water from the fridge.

"Aria, are you okay?"

Aria nodded as she sipped. "Sure," she said casually, "are you?"

Lauren glared at her, "you know what I mean," she scowled. "It's late, and you were out alone. You could have told me, or left a note, or something! I do have a phone, you know," she held it up to her, as if to prove something. She was angry.

"Look, I'm sorry," Aria said with a sigh. "You were with Ezra, and I needed to clear my head. I'm stressing out, okay, this internship is a lot to handle. I'm sorry."

Lauren took a seat at the table, and Aria joined her. She realized she was sat in the same place that Ezra was, earlier, and she felt comforted, though she knew she shouldn't.

"I'm sorry, Ar, for going off at you like that. I was just worried.." Aria remained silent as Lauren shook her head. "I wasn't with Ezra, he left. I guess he just doesn't feel the same way that I do. It was as if he was always thinking about something, or maybe _someone_ else, you know?"

Aria couldn't maintain eye contact with her friend, "um, yeah," she replied guiltily. "Look, Lauren, about Ezra.."

"No! I don't wanna talk about him. God, what a jerk. I hope I never lay eyes on him again, honestly." Aria nodded as Lauren spoke. On her walk home, she had decided that she was going to tell her everything about Ezra. She was going to explain the whole situation, about how they used to know eachother, everything, but how could she now? She tried to maintain a smile as she listened to her friend trash-talk the man she thought she was over, but really, really wasn't. "He was nice enough I guess," she continued, "but whatever. What kind of person turns down this?" She pointed at herself, then eyed Aria carefully. "Do I look bad tonight," she asked her seriously, "does this dress make me look fat?"

Aria's eyes widened. "What? No, of course not! Look, it's not you, it's him, he's not the kind of guy to sleep with girls he's not committed to, you know? Not a one night stand kind of guy."

Lauren laughed. "How do you know what kind of guy he is?" Aria opened her mouth and began to laugh nervously, before spinning a lie. "Oh, um, I don't. I just got that vibe from him, he seems that type."

"Yeah.. you're right. Still, I looked hot tonight, he's an idiot, if you ask me." She began to stand up and straightened down her dress, and grabbed herself a water.

"Definitely," Aria told her, trying to get away from the topic. "Look, I'm gonna head to bed," she said, rubbing her head, "it's been a long day. I'll see you in the morning."

"Alright, hon," she replied with a smile, "goodnight."

Aria walked to the door and began to open it, before she felt Lauren's hand on her shoulder.

"Look," she said quietly, as if to keep this conversation private, despite it only being the two of them, "is everything okay, I mean, _okay_ okay?"

Aria knew exactly what she meant. About a year or so after becoming friends with Lauren, the two of them got really drunk, and Aria had told her everything about her high school years. It was in that moment that Aria remembered that she had also told her about her unique relationship with a _teacher.._ She had absolutely downplayed it after seeing how eager Lauren was to learn about it, and told her it was a fling, something that lasted only a few weeks, not wanting to go into detail seeing as at that point she was very much in the early stages of getting over Ezra. She also told Lauren about A, which she mostly already knew about. She had read about Rosewood's events in the news a year or so before meeting Aria, so she knew most of what had happened, as did the rest of the country. She was surprised to find out that her roommate was one of the girls who was kidnapped and trapped in a dollhouse, but she didn't constantly pester her for knowledge. Up until now, Lauren had barely mentioned anything about it, so Aria took it as quite a surprise.

Aria tried to play things cool. "Yeah.. I'm fine, promise." She tried to turn and walk again but Lauren stopped her.

"You'd tell me, though, right? If things were happening again?" Aria looked down, this topic made her uncomfortable. Ezra had always told her to write it down, and for the longest time she'd refused, not wanting to dwell on it, but about a year ago, she'd started to document things. She'd already written what she'd consider to fill half a book, and she'd been working on a few articles, messing around with titles and pictures, different mediums, all about her time in the dollhouse, and the mystery of Charles, or as she should she say, _Charlotte_. She found that Ezra had been right all along, and when she wrote about it, she could almost switch off whenever she wanted to. She'd have her writing time, her time to dwell and get emotional, but as soon as the document was shut down, as soon as the book was closed, her mind moved elsewhere. She used to have frequent nightmares and horrible daydreams, but since she put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, all of this had stopped. In a way, she was almost able to get over Ezra, too. Or at least she thought she was. She'd almost blocked him out of her mind. She still thought about him, but it seemed to just get less and less often, until tonight of course.

"Of course, yeah.." Aria mumbled, "look, I'd rather not talk about it, okay.."

Lauren smiled sympathetically, "I know, I'm sorry. Get some sleep, we can talk tomorrow, if you want to."

All Aria could do was nod and leave the room as quickly as possible. Lauren was a good, kind person, and she hated lying to her. She knew she should have told her about Ezra as soon as he walked through the door, but she didn't, and then the lies just built - it was like high school all over again. She knew that if she told her now, Lauren would be devastated, and Aria would feel even worse than she already did. She sighed as she made her way to her bedroom, water in one hand, cell phone in the other. She'd just sat down on her bed and slipped under the sheets when her phone began to buzz on her bedside table. Her blood ran cold as she saw the word 'unknown,' on the caller ID, and she was only able to relax due to the caller's number being displayed underneath it. Just years ago, something like this would have been bad news. She composed herself and pressed 'answer.'

"Hello?" She pressed the phone to her ear and listened intently, and then she heard his voice. _"Hello? Aria?"_ "Ezra?" She sighed in relief. Even years on from A's torment, her whole body still tensed at the slightest thing. Whether it was a midnight phonecall, or a knock on the door in the middle of the afternoon. _"Yeah! Hey, um, I'm sorry for calling so late.. I wasn't going to bother, but I'm lying here in bed and I just can't get to sleep after what happened. I'm sorry."_

Aria found herself fiddling with her hair."What? Don't be ridiculous, you have absolutely nothing to apologise for. It was all me, _I'm_ sorry." She allowed herself to lie down, relaxing as she heard his voice. She had to admit that her heart had skipped a beat. He'd kept her number, even though he had obviously changed his.

 _"Well, I still feel terrible. I just want you to know that we can forget about tonight, it's fine. It's been years, I shouldn't expect anything.. I was just amazed to actually see you again, you know?"_ Aria smiled as she spoke. "I know that feeling. Look, I don't want to forget about it.. But I don't think it can happen again.." _"Oh?"_ She could hear the sadness in his voice, _and it killed her._ "I just can't do this to Lauren. And I haven't told her about anything, so I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't either-" _"What makes you think I'll see her again?"_ "I don't know.. Look, it's your life, Ezra. You can do whatever you like. I don't expect you to put everything on hold just because you've seen me again."

Suddenly, the line went silent. Aria had to check the screen, worried he'd hung up. "Ezra?" _"Sorry, sorry - I'm just thinking.."_ Aria bit her lip, and found herself holding onto the sheets with her free hand, knotting the fringe detail on her blanket. _"I just don't know how I can go back to how I was before. You're like a hurricane, Aria. In the best possible way.. obviously."_ Aria's stomach tightened. She could feel the heat on her cheeks, and her lips had become independent of her brain, curling themselves into a grin.

"I just.." Aria found herself at a loss for words. "I, uh, I just don't want to hurt anyone." She heard Ezra chuckle from the other end. _"I know, I know.. I just want you to remember that that includes you, too. You can't hurt yourself, babe-"_ Aria of course couldn't see his face, but after accidentally using their old pet name, she could imagine his whole nose scrunched up, and cursewords clouding his thoughts. She allowed herself to smile, glad that he had messed up. Usually she'd be the one saying something she shouldn't. Or, as tonight had proved, kissing people when she probably shouldn't.

"I know.." She sighed heavily, and heard Lauren pacing outside her room. "Um, I gotta go.. Lauren's outside." There was a quiet knock on the door, just loud enough that Ezra must have heard it on his end. _"Oh, okay. Look, Aria. I wanna see you again, I don't care how. If friends is what you wanna do, hell, if it's acquaintances, that's fine. I just haven't been the same since we left eachother."_ Aria smiled, taking a moment to ignore Lauren's knocks. "Okay," she told him. "Goodnight." _"Goodnight, Aria. Oh, and save my number!"_ Aria laughed and was about to speak again when the line went dead. She quickly put her phone down next to her as Lauren's knocks intensified.

"Come in," she shouted quietly, and Lauren did just that. Her face was screwed up, and she closed the door carefully behind her, as if she was trying to be quiet and discrete. Aria wanted to just shout that there's no point, she's already awake, but she didn't.

"Hey.." She said with a smile as she sat down at the end of Aria's bed. "I felt bad. I'm sorry for being so pushy earlier. You're entitled to your secrets if you want them. I just worry about you, that's all."

Aria smiled, "it's okay, you don't need to feel bad at all. It's just been kind of a weird day I guess."

"Good weird?" Lauren asked, and then nodded towards her cell on the nightstand. "I half heard you on the phone. I wasn't snooping, I promise! I just couldn't help but hear. Is there a boy?" She jumped up so she was fully on the bed, and crossed her legs. "Because you know I need details."

Aria went cold. Lauren mustn't have heard that it was Ezra, which was a relief, but she felt so uncomfortable talking about this, nonetheless. "I don't know.." she began, "it's early days, I guess." She was only half-lying..

"Say no more. I understand. When you went to bed I got thinking about Ezra again. And I think I'm gonna call him." Aria shot her a glare, accidentally.

"What?!" Lauren looked taken aback. "Do you not-"

"Sorry, sorry," she said quickly. "I just.. I thought you didn't want him anymore?"

"I know what I said," Lauren answered, "and I'm right about him, I still stand by it. But I don't know.. I'm getting older now, I'm growing up. Maybe I need someone like him, someone who's committed, not after just one thing. I feel like I should stop with the countless men and move on to just _one_ man.. you know? And he's nice.. He's cute.. He's pretty perfect."

Aria couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Are-are you sure? You're still young, Lor, you still have time to mess around, have fun.."

"Hmm, maybe. I don't know." She began to stand, and suddenly Aria needed her to stay, she couldn't let her sleep on this. She couldn't let her call Ezra.

"Look," Aria sighed, "about Ezra.. I should have told you earlier.." Lauren's eyes widened as soon as Aria spoke. "Did he hit on you?" she snapped, "when I went to grab more wine? Did he say something?" At that moment, Lauren's phone began to ring. She sighed as she turned around and declined the call, but then it began to ring again, so she declined again, determined to hear what Aria had to say.

"No, no! He wouldn't have done that, he was on a date with you, okay? It's just-"

"Sorry, hon, hang on." The phone was ringing again so Lauren picked it up.

"Hello? Oh, hey. Do you know what time it is? What number are you calling from? ... Is everything okay? Oh my god.. No.. Um, wait, I can be there in about an hour. Hold on, I'm coming. Don't worry. Chris, no, calm down! Listen to me, it's going to be fine. She'll be fine, okay. I know, I know. Don't be ridiculous, I'm there. I love you too. Bye."

Her face was white, drained of all color, and she quickly pulled her dress over her head and kicked off her heels. She left the room and walked into her own, and Aria could hear her open her closet and fumble through her drawers.

"What happened?" Aria asked, following her, panicked.

"Um, Jen and Chris were in an accident.. Their car collided with a truck and spiraled out of control. Chris is fine, he's shaken but fine. Jen's in surgery, they don't know if she'll make it." Lauren had hurriedly dressed into yoga pants and her college hoody, and she stood sobbing as she tried to brush her hair whilst looking in the mirror.

"God, I don't have time for this." She threw the hair tie onto her bed in frustration, and turned to face Aria, flustered. "Um, they're at Eastern Long Island. I gotta go and just, um, I don't know, _be there._ I'll take my car, you won't need it tomorrow, right?" Aria shook her head, not knowing what to say. "I'll probably crash there, stay with Chris and then I'll call you tomorrow. Will you tell Joe I'm sorry, I'll try and make it back for my shift Monday.. but.. oh my god. What if she's not okay, Aria?"

Aria was breathing heavily, fighting the tears that she knew she had to keep hidden for Lauren's sake. Chris was Lauren's brother, and Jen was his fiancee. The two had been together ever since Chris was in high school, and Lauren had been 9, maybe 10. Jen was more like a sister than a sister-in-law to Lauren, and the two hung out at every possible opportunity. Aria had met her countless times, and she was great. Funny, smart, beautiful. A truly amazing person. A person who didn't deserve this at all.

"Come here," Aria said as she enveloped Lauren into a hug. She pulled away quickly and held onto her shoulders. "Listen to me," she said, almost sternly. "It's gonna be okay. You take your car, and drive carefully. Keep yourself calm, and then you gotta be strong for Chris when you get there. I know this is scary, believe me," she thought back to when Ezra was rushed into hospital, and she couldn't even be there for him until the coast was clear, "but you need to be strong. You can be strong. Okay? Take some blankets and pillows from downstairs, keep them in your car in case you need to crash in the waiting room. Oh, and take some drinks and food, just keep it in your trunk. And your wallet, and phone. And charger." She shook her head as she paused for a breath, "sorry, I'm rambling."

"No," Lauren said, wiping her eyes. "It's good, thank you. You're great, I'm gonna go. I'll call you as soon as I can, alright? And remember, Joe-" Aria interrupted and quickly pulled her into another hug, "Of course. But it won't matter, he won't mind, you know that."

"I know," she said with a smile, her voice breaking. "I know."

She helped Lauren pack up her car with some essentials, and within ten minutes of receiving the phone call she was gone. Aria sat alone in their living room, half-listening to the TV playing some 24-hour news coverage, but her mind was elsewhere. There was no way that she could break this news to Lauren now, especially if the worst was about to happen. She tried to relax, and it must have only been less than an hour or so before she drifted off, sleeping under a blanket on the couch.

* * *

 **I'm the worst, sorry! I should have updated sooner I know but a lot of things have been on my mind and I'm pretty much a big old ball of stress, haha! But I hope you liked it, excited to see what you think of the dramatic turn of events..**

 **Please review! More reviews encourage me to update quicker ;) And they just make me really happy, too!**

 **(Also fun fact I wrote like two different chapters for chapter 4, this has been the hardest one for me to write so far!)**


	5. Chapter 5

**_One Week Later_**

Aria quickly packed her bag, flustered as she tried to remember everything that she would need for the day. Lauren was due back tonight. It had been a rough couple of days following the accident, but her brother and his fiancée were doing great. They'd had a lucky escape, according to their doctor. Lauren had kept Aria updated every single day with texts and calls and she could see her becoming happier every single day.

As well as worrying about her friend, Aria had spent the week busying herself at her internship. It was tough fitting in her work load around her job at the coffee shop (to cover for Lauren she was basically doing twice as many shifts), but it had kept her busy and she was grateful for it, plus, the tips weren't too bad, either.

Her phone buzzed in her bag but she didn't hear it, she was too busy stressing about whether this was the right shade of lipstick for the day ahead. It was a big one, really, she was meeting with her boss to talk about the possibility of working on the team full time once she graduated college. It was almost as if somebody had pressed a switch, and changed the whole attitude of her colleagues that worked there. Suddenly they began to take her seriously, and she was no longer the coffee-girl, but the girl with potential.

She'd prepared a short presentation, just in case. It was a simple powerpoint and a few, okay, a dozen laminated slides with her best ideas on, as well as a selection of her work. She'd even put in a copy of the creative writing piece, well, more like a non-fiction text, where she'd let everything about Charlotte come screaming out of her. If things went well, she thought that she might share it with her boss. Weirdly, it was what she was most proud of, even though it was basically the worst years of her life scribbled down.

Just as she was about to leave, her phone began to ring. She scrambled for it, desperate to find it, aware that it was probably Lauren, calling because she needed something for tonight or just a general chat to calm her newfound paranoia about anything and everything since the accident. It continued to ring and Aria finally wrapped her hand around the phone in her bag, pulling it out and frowning as she saw the caller ID.

It wasn't that she was necessarily avoiding Ezra.. The last time they'd spoken was the night Lauren left, and the first few times afterwards she had genuinely missed his call, and just hadn't found the time to call him back. But then she stopped replying to the texts, and quickly scrolled past his posts on Facebook.. Even she didn't know what it was. She'd found herself pre-occupied with other things, and she'd been fine without him for so long. Well, not fine. She still found it difficult to maintain any relationship with any guy, purely because she compared every single detail of him to Fitz. His Facebook photo smiled back at her from her phone screen. It was a cheesy picture of him, smiling as she stood by what she presumed was one of the homes he built during his work in Thailand. She missed him so much, she really did. She wanted nothing more than to just answer the call and arrange coffee, or dinner, or _anything,_ just to be with him, but a nagging voice in the back of her head told her to be strong. She didn't _need_ him, and she'd been okay without him. The events of last week had simply been moments of weakness, something that she needed to get over and deal with. Besides, after everything that Lauren had been through, she couldn't bear to hurt her further by telling her about her and Ezra.

With that in mind, she dropped the phone back into her bag with a sigh, and proceeded to grab her coat and walk out of the door. She walked down the street with a confidence that she hadn't felt for the longest time. Sure, things weren't perfect, but this morning she had a weird feeling that things were finally looking up.

* * *

"So, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, I'd like to introduce Aria Montgomery, one of our editorial interns this summer. She's been with us since the end of May, and I thought it was about time she was formally introduced to everyone in the office. She is going to share some of her ideas today."

Aria smiled awkwardly, stood at the front of a decently large meeting room, as Joanna, her boss, sat towards the back and introduced her to basically everyone worth knowing from the magazine. Joanna, as editor, was in charge, but she'd invited along two big names from the magazine's publishers, the photo editor, several talented journalists, among many others. Aria felt suddenly out of place, and somewhat confused as to why she'd been given the chance to speak in front of so many people she admired and respected. She quickly shook the thoughts out of her head - she deserved this, she worked hard, this was right.

All eyes were now on Aria as she smiled quickly before beginning to speak.

"Thank you, Joanne. So yes, I'm Aria. I'm currently studying at NYU, I've just finished my third year so only one more to go before I graduate. I plan to major in English which I believe gives me such a wide variety of knowledge and skills for professions in publishing and obviously editorial work, which is what I really want to do."

She nervously picked up her notes and began to move on with the powerpoint. She felt all eyes burning into her, so she decided to talk a little whilst she flipped through her notes.

"Um, a few things about me. I'm 21, I love books and photography, they're my favourite things in the whole world. I'm from Rosewood, Pennsylvania..."

As soon as the word 'Rosewood' left her mouth, Aria could have sworn the mumbles started. There were whispers upon whispers and she carried on to try and move on with the subject, but she couldn't deny the unease that she felt as soon as she mentioned where she was from.

"I take a lot of my own pictures," Aria began again, ignoring the talking and moving on with her presentation, "as a teenager, something always kinda felt missing. Once I'd taken a picture, it was great, and I could develop it and maybe hang it up on my wall, or frame it, but that was it. It was cool, sure, but I always had the feeling that I could do so much more." She began to hand out pieces of paper to everyone sitting down, "and you know, magazines, they have great opportunities for aspiring authors to send in their writing, so I thought it would be great to give aspiring photographers a chance to share their work, too."

She paused as everybody looked over what she had prepared, and nobody seemed to be as interested as she had hoped.

"I mean it's just an idea," she continued, forcing a smile, "just something to think about.. Um, but what I'm most interested in pursuing is writing, and I know that that's really important for the magazine, and I think that a true, honest voice is so important today-"

Just as she had picked up her writing about Charlotte, she was interrupted. "So, Aria, pardon me, but you mentioned you grew up in Rosewood?"

Aria felt that same sense of uneasiness that she had done just a few minutes prior. "Yeah, I did," she answered slowly, with hesitation. The man in question simply nodded and as she began to find her feet again she heard him ask Joanne, who was sat two seats down from him, if she was _the_ Aria Montgomery, to which Joanne simply nodded.

It took a few moments, but Aria realised what this was. For weeks she'd been wondering why this magazine, of all magazines, had agreed to hire her for summer work. It was prestigious, and that's why she thought she was always making coffee. She never felt good enough, and that because in truth _she wasn't._ She hadn't been hired because of her potential, or because Joanne was impressed with what she'd said in her interview. She had been hired for one simple reason - Charlotte.

With her writing in her hand, she stood stunned and silent until she caught the eye of Joanne, who shot her a glare as she realised that Aria was adding things up. It was only until she had left Rosewood that she realised how big the story of the Rosewood stalker had become nationwide. She'd be sat on the bus and would hear people talking about it. It happened a lot in her first year at NYU. She'd walk past a group of girls and they'd begin to talk, and obnoxious frat boys would ask her if it was really her, and if she still had nightmares. She'd learnt to deal with it, and things definitely died down. But it was still there, like any big news story. If you did a Google search for 'Rosewood,' you'd find Aria's picture and a short biography, as well as her friends' details, too. She'd only ever had an experience of someone trying to get information out of her a couple of times, one of those was Clark when she was still in high school, and another was a guy she briefly dated her sophomore year. She met him at the film club, and it was their third date when she found a bunch of newspaper articles about Charlotte, hidden in his closet when she went to get a hoody. She thought that now, three years on, everything was done, that people didn't care anymore, but they did, and this just proved it.

"I'm sorry," Aria began, as she put the papers in her hand back into her portfolio, before moving to the laptop in front of her and removing her memory stick. She couldn't believe that she had almost shared her story with all of them. In that moment, she vowed to herself to never reveal it to anyone ever again.

"I don't feel too good, if you'll excuse me.." And with that, she made a swift exit into the hallway, where she tried her hardest to control her breathing as everything came rushing back to her. Every awful part of the dollhouse, every text, every run through the woods of Rosewood in the middle of the night, everything was vivid and came alive in her mind, and the only person she could think of, the only person she wanted right now, was Ezra.

As she leant up against the wall, she heard chatter from inside the meeting room, and Joanne rushed out to find her.

"Aria! What was that? Do you realize-"

"Yes, I realize," she snapped back, interrupting her. "What you just did to me, all of you, what you've been doing for the past few weeks, it's just bullshit!"

Taken aback by her words, Joanne remained silent.

"Admit it, you only hired me because you know that I was involved in everything that happened in Rosewood three years ago. You searched my name like you probably do for everyone else and thought it would be an incredible opportunity to get inside details of a story." She let out a laugh, "I'm so stupid for only realizing this now. I've only been here like what, a month, and you're already asking me to pitch ideas. It's crap is what it is, and I'm done. I quit."

Without giving Joanne a chance to respond, she stormed off down the hallway, still reeling from her panic attack, and tried to shake her mind of the thoughts of her high school years. She marched straight to her small desk in the corner of the main office, and cleared the contents into her bag, before making her way to the elevator, not even looking back.

As she walked onto the busy city streets, the air was warm, and found herself struggling for breath yet again. She was walking ridiculously fast, but aimlessly, with no clue where she was going, until she collided with a fellow pedestrian, and fell to the ground.

"Shit," she heard him say as he stopped, too, and apologised to people who were dodging them as they walked. "Are you okay?"

Aria rubbed her head and tried to stop herself from crying. All of her anger was building up and she couldn't control it for much longer. She bit her tongue and then looked up at the stranger, only he wasn't a stranger at all.

"Aaron?" Aria couldn't believe it. Of all the people in this city, she managed to collide with someone who she knew.

"Aria! Crap, are you okay? I totally didn't recognise you.."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she lied. "Could you maybe, uh-"

"Of course, here!" He gave her a hand in getting up and once she found her feet, they walked slowly and silently until they found a bench not far away, on which Aria sat first, and Aaron joined her.

"It was my fault," she told him as she rubbed the back of her neck, trying to get rid of an ache that just wouldn't budge. "And I don't wanna keep you, you must have had somewhere to go-"

"No, don't be crazy, it's fine. It wasn't your fault, either."

"So you do have somewhere to be?" She raised an eyebrow at him and he shook his head.

"It's just work, it's no biggie-"

"Are you serious?! What time do you start?"

"Um, 10..."

Aria looked at her wrist, "Aaron it's like 5 to 10, you gotta go, don't be stupid. I'm fine, honestly. People fall over on the sidewalk all the time-"

"You're not fine, you could have concussion, or bruising, not to mention that there's something else going on with you." The two of them shared a look, and Aria couldn't deny to him now that there was something wrong.

"Fine," she admitted. "But you need to go to work, I'll come with you and grab some coffee, and maybe some ice to put on my damn neck."

Aaron laughed, "deal. Come on."

He helped her up yet again and the two of them walked the short distance to the coffee shop in Soho that Aria had been to many times before. She hadn't been there since her interaction with Ezra, and knew that everything would come flooding back to her as soon as she entered the building again. It was then that she realised the last time she'd seen Aaron was when he interrupted her make-up session with Ezra, and she suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

Almost as if he read her mind, Aaron began to speak. "So, how's your boyfriend?"

Aria blushed as she kept her eyes away from his. "He's not my boyfriend.."

"Oh.." he said quietly, "sorry. I just thought-"

"Yeah, it's complicated."

He could tell that that's all she wanted to say on the subject, so he began to chat about the weather, and a new type of latte that they had began to serve at work. He bought up anything and everything to make small talk for the journey, and Aria was actually grateful to speak to someone who made things feel so easy and normal, even after such a shitty morning.

"I don't mean to pry.." Aaron started as they turned the corner to the coffee shop, "but you've been quiet. Is everything okay? You looked upset earlier, and not just because you embarrassed yourself in front of half of New York."

Aria managed a smile and shook her head. "It's nothing.. Just a bad day at the office I guess."

"Yeah I figured," he admitted, "but it's only 10 o'clock in the morning, so I thought there's probably more to it than that."

Aria took a deep breath. If she told him, she'd have to tell him about Charlotte, which she usually didn't reveal to people that she barely knew, or anyone at all for that matter, especially after what had just happened. The only people she could talk to right now were her friends, who were all in different cities, Lauren, who she didn't want to overload after the week she'd had (plus, she would take it all _way_ too seriously, which she didn't need right now), and Ezra, who she needed to learn to be dependant of.

"My boss is just a bitch," was what she finally settled on. "Well, ex-boss, I guess. I kinda quit."

Aaron actually stopped walking and turned to face her with a smirk. "Wait, you quit?! Damn, I didn't have you cut out as that type-"

"Hey! What do you mean? I can be... assertive. If you must know, I stormed out. And I cleaned out my desk so I never have to go back." She realised that she was bragging but she didn't care. It was strange, too, because she couldn't work out why she felt the need to impress Aaron so much. She barely knew the guy, he could be practically anyone.

"Wow, this is definitely a new side of you." Aria could have sworn he gave her a wink, but she pretended not to notice as she continued to walk until they both reached the coffee shop. Aaron opened the door for her and she thanked him as she walked in and looked around for a seat, with Aaron going to start his shift.

She decided on sitting outside. The place had a great garden area towards the back, something rare for a New York city establishment. There were potted plants and carpets of grass, as well as bird boxes and of course tables, complete with umbrellas to give shade during long summer days. She thought it would be perfect. She could absolutely use the fresh air and the sunlight was already doing her the world of good.

She ordered her iced coffee first at the bar and then made her way to the back. She carefully pushed open the door and noticed a couple of people standing over on the patio. She ignored them and sat down in her favourite spot towards the fence, so that she could peer over and watch the city go by from a completely different perspective. She sipped on her drink and pulled out a book from her purse before starting to read, feeling peaceful.

She'd only been there for a few minutes when she felt something cover her light, and the sun was taken over by the shadow of somebody standing over her. She didn't even need to look up to know it was him.

"Aria?"

She put down her book and made eye contact, chills running all the way up her arms. She breathed slowly. "Ezra."

She gave him a small, awkward smile, and he did the same. "How are you?"

As soon as he had started to talk, she felt lighter, like a weight had been completely lifted from her shoulders. His whole presence was comforting, and as she sat there, gazing up at him, she couldn't work out why she thought that being without him was a good idea.

"I'm good, I think," she lied, "you?"

"Um, yeah, me too." He was lying, also. Aria felt instantly guilty for avoiding him for the past week. She told him they could be together, she told him that she would tell Lauren about everything and then she just... didn't. He deserved more than how she had treated him.

She took a moment to look him up and down discretely. He looked tired, and he'd grown back his scruff that she'd always secretly loved. He wore jeans, a t-shirt and a jacket - very simple, very Ezra. It only then that she noticed the cigarette in his right hand, between his fingers. It was small, almost gone, and she felt her heart drop. What was going on with him?

"So you smoke now?" She asked him, a matter of factly.

He looked down to his hand and shrugged. "Not really. Just when I'm uh, stressed, I guess."

Aria nodded. She didn't have the energy to lecture him like she probably would have done five years ago. She understood. He was hurting, so was she. He found his ways to deal with it, and so would she.

"Lauren called me," he said bluntly. Aria didn't know why she was surprised. "Oh," was all she managed to get out.

"Yeah. I figured that's why you never called me back after that night. I don't blame you, we've got ourselves in kind of a mess." He took a puff of his cigarette. The image of it was so bizarre to Aria. Never in her life had she seen Ezra have anything stronger than a beer, and here he was. It was a whole new side of him, and she hated herself for kinda liking it.

"It's not unusual for us, though, is it?" Was her reply, which caused Ezra to laugh, before he took one last puff and stubbed out his cigarette, and pointed at the empty seat next to her. "May I?"

She nodded, and he sat down, bringing his own cup of coffee with him. They both sat in silence and drank until Aria decided to speak..

 ** _to be continued.._**

* * *

 **Alright don't hate me (seriously please don't hate me!). I know this has been a ridiculously long wait for an update but I've started Uni and moved out of my house and my comfort zone into student accomodation and my time has basically been spent adjusting/trying to socialise/doing uni work and going to actual work. But finally we have an update! I just want to say, please don't expect me to update all of the time. I'm going to aim for like once a month AT LEAST because I feel like that's do-able for me right now. Again I'm so sorry you have no idea, but hopefully this update was worth it! Please let me know what you think. What do you guys think about bad boy Ezra?! I'm kinda loving it...**

 **As always please review and share and all that good stuff :)**


	6. Chapter 6

"So what did she say exactly?"

"Who?" Ezra was staring at Aria intently, completely in his own world. The last time he saw her, it was dark, and he hadn't been able to look at her properly. He couldn't deny that she'd changed over the years. She'd grown out her hair a little, it was longer than the short bob that she had sported when he'd last seen her, but apart from that, she was still Aria. Her wacky dress-sense was still intact, which made Ezra smile, and her dramatic lipstick was still part of her daily routine.

Aria rolled her eyes and sighed. "Lauren, who else?"

"Oh, right. Right." Ezra shifted nervously in his seat, before nodding slowly. "Well she, uh, rang me.. Last week sometime. She was at the hospital, really shaken up. I thought you'd told her about us, uh, I mean, about what we talked about, you know.." Aria barely looked up at him, instead focusing on her drink. 'Us.' Such a phrase seemed almost impossible for them now. Why was it that they always had the worst timing? First, it was high school, and he was her teacher. Then, he thought he had a son, and when he found out that it wasn't actually his, she had moved on with somebody else. This vicious cycle seemed to continue, and now he was nearing thirty, and she was in her twenties, and they were both finally at a place where they could be together and have the life that they had always dreamed of, but there was something else in the way, somebody else, to be more specific. Somebody that Ezra didn't want to hurt and Aria couldn't hurt, even if she wanted to.

Aria tried to hide the jealousy in her voice as she probed more, desperate to know more about the topic. "What did she say?" She didn't like the idea of the two of them having private conversations.

"She told me about the accident. Said she was sorry, that life was too short, that she really liked me.. I was gonna tell her about us, I swear. But I couldn't, not in the state she was in."

Aria nodded, she completely understood.

"Speaking of sorry's," she began, and leaned forward. "I'm sorry."

Ezra shook his head, "Aria, you don't-"

"No," she insisted. "I was such a bitch to you. I've ignored you for a whole week, left you completely in the dark. It isn't fair to you, Ezra, not at all. Man, even Lauren called you. I guess she's better for you, after all." She was half-joking of course, but the truth still remained, and she felt awful about it.

"Aria, I can assure you, with _total_ confidence, that that is not true." He managed to catch her eye, something he'd been avoiding since he sat down. He knew the power she had over him, and those eyes, they were something different altogether. She looked away, and he noticed her hand resting on the table, so he placed his own over it. "What's going on?"

He took her by surprise, but it was no secret that he always knew when something was up with her. She shrugged it off and pulled away, leaving him with only a frown on his face. "It's nothing, I'm fine," which was a complete lie, of course. Ezra was the only one she could talk to about what had happened this morning in her presentation. He understood completely what had happened to her in high school, so she had no idea why she was blocking him out now. She was trying so hard to be independent, to not need him at all, because she did need him, more than anything. She thought about Aaron inside, and her neck suddenly throbbed.

"I'll be right back," she told him, excusing herself and walking back inside the coffee shop. She saw Aaron at the counter and as if he read her mind, he held up a bag of frozen peas, to which she gratefully smiled.

"You're a saint," she told him with a grin on her lips, "thank you." She took the bag from him and tried to balance it on her neck as she stood up.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked, trying not to laugh at the sight of her struggling to balance the peas on her neck without falling over, _again._ She looked at him with a hopeless, defeated expression, and shrugged, so he made his way from behind the counter to where she stood, and instructed her to sit down on the bar stool.

"Here, let me," their fingers grazed eachothers as he took the peas from her, and although it wasn't the magic touch that Ezra had, she felt something, some kind of spark, and it made her look away. He was gentle as he moved her hair out of the way, and grimaced as he noticed the redness which guarded the bruise that was forming below. "Damn, did somebody actually stand on you?" He tried not to laugh, and so did Aria. With each breath her whole neck moved, and she needed to stay still. "Ok, it'll be cold, obviously. Brace yourself."

Aria did just that. "Ahhh," she sighed, half in relief and half due to pain of the iciness. He took her hand from where it rested on the counter, again igniting the vague spark that seemed to exist between them, and moved it to rest on top of the peas to keep them in place. It was in that moment, with their hands joined, and Aaron inches away from Aria, his breath hot on her neck, that they heard the loud cough from behind them. Aria didn't even need to turn around to know who it was, but she did, discarding the peas to the floor and jumping up from the barstool.

"I just wanted to say bye," Ezra said with a bitter tone, before nodding at Aaron and walking towards the door.

"Wait," Aria practically shouted, but Ezra didn't stop. She followed him out of the door and into the street, leaving a puzzled Aaron to pick up the peas and get back to work.

"Ezra, wait!"

Aria was quickly losing her breath, and Ezra stopped, walking back a little bit to close the distance between them.

"I don't get it, Aria. I just, I don't get it." He was being completely ambiguous, but Aria knew exactly what he was getting at.

"I know exactly what you're thinking, but there is absolutely nothing going on between Aaron and I," she insisted.

"Oh, so he has a name now." He sighed and pushed his fingers through his hair, frustrated at the situation. "I'm sorry, Aria. You just, you can't blame me for being a little jealous."

"Of what?!" She was practically screaming at him, in the street, with people walking past. She couldn't believe this was happening. Ezra seemed to suddenly become very self conscious, so he pulled her to one side and bought her closer.

"I know that our situation sucks," he began, slightly dodging the question. "I know that we can't do anything with Lauren in the picture. But it doesn't mean that I don't want to, and it doesn't mean that I don't still want to be with you. It doesn't mean that I haven't spent the past week thinking about you, having sleepless nights because I physically cannot get you out of my mind! I'm not blaming you, and I'm not mad at you. You're entitled to do whatever the hell you want. I'm angry at myself, for agreeing to see Lauren in the first place, and missing out on being with you again because of it."

Aria stood stunned as Ezra caught his breath after his rant. She had no idea what to say. She felt bad, and wanted to try and make it up to him for being such a lousy person to him lately, when, "And then you seem to push me away, ignore me, while pursuing something, _anything_ , with this other guy."

Aria's mood turned from shock to anger, and her urge to earn his forgiveness seemed to vanish. "You don't get to presume things, Ezra. I haven't spoken to him since I saw you that night in the coffee shop. He was being nice, and then you came along, so I stopped. I was only talking to him just because he'd helped me earlier on and- oh, you know what? I don't need to explain anything to you. I've had a crappy morning and I definitely do not need this. Find me when you've grown up."

She turned on her heel and began to walk away, the steam coming out of her ears almost visible. He seemed so different lately. Of course people change over time, but really, could one person change that much? To anyone else, maybe to Spencer, or her Mom, he was still Ezra, just older, maybe wiser, but she knew him better than they did, and he was a different person altogether.

Ezra watched Aria walk away, his shoulders heavy as he leaned back against the wall, feeling defeated both physically and mentally. Why the hell did he let his emotions come through like that? Yes, he was jealous, but that didn't mean he should take out his frustrations on her. He felt lousy. He'd wanted to properly talk to Aria again, to tell her that the past few years hadn't exactly been easy for him. He knew that she was the only one who would be able to fully understand how he felt, but he'd just lost her, too, just like he seemed to do with every other person in his life. He reached into his pocket for a cigarette, and lit it, beginning to puff away as he walked home.

* * *

Aria had said a quick goodbye to Aaron, apologising profusely before making her way home herself. Now she was unemployed, well, kinda. She still had her job at the coffee shop downtown, but from the hours of 9-5, Monday to Friday, she was pretty much free. She hadn't let herself think about any of what had happened this morning, and even her fight with Ezra had provided a welcome distraction to how she was feeling. As she lay in the hot bath, lights out, candles burning, left only with her thoughts, she had nowhere to hide. The tears fell thick and fast, rolling down her cheeks and dripping into the water she was bathing in. She didn't even try to stop it. Lauren wasn't home yet, so she practically screamed, howled, everything from the past five years coming back to her. Ali's disappearance, Ezra's book, A, Charles, _Charlotte,_ absolutely everything began to swim around in her mind, and she couldn't even breathe without going back to that time. She jumped up quickly, draining the bath and putting on her robe, rubbing her eyes raw as she urged the tears to go away. She had to stop this, she was stronger than this. And it was true, she was. Aria rarely allowed herself to fall apart, partly because the effort of putting herself back together was too much for her to cope with. But mainly because she thought that she could deal with everything. In Aria's mind, she puts on the pretense that she can hold the whole world on her shoulders, hell, on just one of her shoulders, but she needed to realise that she couldn't, that it was an impossibility for _anyone,_ not just her.

Her evening was pretty average. She made dinner, enough for two, putting half in the fridge for Lauren to re-heat when she got home, and she had changed into her pyjamas, and decided to watch a movie to take her mind off everything. Tomorrow she would sit down and sort out her life. She wondered if she could still put the magazine on her resume.. her work there had to count, didn't it? She was just pretty sure that she wouldn't get a decent reference out of them now, definitely not.

The evening was getting later as she heard a buzz from the door. She jumped up quickly, throwing her hair up into a messy bun as she suddenly felt the heat that was rising in her apartment, making her way to the door. She opened it and then shouted down the intercom that it was open, leaving Lauren no room to answer. According to her, that was one of Aria's worst habits. She hated talking on the intercom, she found it awkward and annoying and shaky - she could hardly hear whoever was trying to talk to her on the other end, so nine times out of ten she'd just buzz them in and talk to them at the door instead.

She made her way into the kitchen to unwrap Lauren's food and pour her a glass of wine, determined to make things up to her, when she heard the door close from outside.

"I'm in here," Aria called out, "do you want rosé or white?" She decided to open both of the bottles. It had been a long day, after all, and she was sure that Lauren would be more than happy to mix and match. Silence continued as Aria poured herself a glass, and then the door opened wider behind her. She spun around to greet her friend with a smile, but her smile fell as soon as her eyes fell on somebody else.

"I'm more of a beer guy," Ezra said with a smile, "but rosé sounds great." He laughed awkwardly, trying to make light of the situation, but Aria just stared at him.

"What do you want?" She asked bluntly, turning back around and swallowing a large mouthful. She could feel Ezra walking closer to her, but she tried to ignore it. He couldn't stay long, Lauren would be home soon and the last thing she needed was to have him here when she got back.

"You told me to find you when I'd grown up," he began, "here I am." Again, he was trying to make light of what was happening, and Aria wasn't sure how she felt about it. "I've been grown up for a while now, believe it or not," which gained a small smile from Aria, "but I was a jerk today. I was overreacting and I'm sorry. I know things aren't the same between us now, and I'm not gonna lie, that has been pretty hard for me to accept, but I'm working on it. Like I told you that night at the coffee shop, I can't just let you leave again. I really, _really_ need you in my life, Aria. Even as just a friend.."

Aria took another sip of her drink, thinking about what he had to say. His apology was sincere and honest, and she knew him well enough to know that he meant every single word. He was hurting and that was clear, she'd noticed it earlier. What had happened to him since they'd last seen eachother?

"You're right," she uttered quietly, "you were a jerk today." Ezra smiled a little, and so did Aria. "But you're also right about needing me in your life, because I need you in mine, too." She took a moment and paused, looking to the floor and hesitating, before adding, " _And I don't think that we can ever just be friends_."

Ezra kept his gaze on her as she shifted uncomfortably on the spot, taking a few steps to close the distance between them. "So where does that leave us?" His voice now had that extra huskiness added to it and he was speaking with the same tone he'd had that night in the coffee shop.

"You tell me." It was barely audible, not much louder than a whisper, but Ezra heard her loud and clear. He moved quickly, embracing her and wrapping his arms around her waist tightly, covering her petite figure entirely as his lips crashed down onto hers. Aria more than reciprocated, running her hands through his hair, noticing the stubble that was becoming increasingly present on his chin and tasting the bitter notes of tobacco on his lips that was so bad, it was kinda _good._

Ezra lifted her from the ground and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he hoisted her up onto the kitchen counter, a place that held fond memories for the two of them. Their kiss deepened, and Aria's hands wandered under Ezra's shirt, lifting it slightly, before removing it completely, letting it fall to the floor along with her slippers and his sneakers. She removed her hands from his hair, but only to adjust and undo the buckle of his belt, skillfully unbuttoning his pants without opening her eyes as he sucked gently on the smooth skin of her neck, and slipped his hand quickly into the depth of her pyjama shorts. Aria moaned as he moved his fingers in rhythm with the arching of her back, and her breathing quickened, getting more and more unsteady, until she couldn't concentrate on kissing him anymore. She let herself fall back, almost lifting herself off the counter as she was plunged into ecstasy, with Ezra smirking at her, a mixture of pride and lust on his face as he watched her squirm beneath him.

He removed his hand from her, and pulled her close to him again. Aria pulled hard on his head, and playfully bit his lip as she battled her tongue with his for dominance. She panted as she moved, still recovering from her previous euphoria, before moving her lips to his ear.

"Inside me, now." As if her instructions weren't clear enough, she moved her own hand into Ezra's pants and he sprang free, and she didn't need to work that hard to make sure he was ready.

Even in the heat of the moment, Ezra still couldn't believe what was currently happening. He could barely breathe let alone speak as she got to work, moving her hand in time with the kisses she was placing on his neck, but he pulled away slightly, watching her.

"Are you sure?" His tone was different to the desiring, lustful one he'd sported moments earlier as he worked her into a frenzy. Now it was soft and gentle, and Aria felt like she was a teenager again, with him about to enter her for the first time, asking permission before he got too close to her.

"Yes. I need you, please." How could Ezra stop himself? He put that wicked smirk back onto his face and she did the same. He pulled her hand off of him roughly, replacing it with his own, guiding himself to her entrance, looking her in the eye as he did so, seeing her face and hearing her moans as soon as he entered her.

The two of them were so preoccupied that they didn't hear the key unlocking the door only meters away from them, and their panting continued, still as loud as before, as Lauren entered the apartment, headphones still in her ears. She kicked off her shoes as Ezra pushed himself deeper and deeper into Aria, whose eyes were still shut tightly as Ezra kissed the skin of her neck. As she hung up her bag, Aria's nails were digging into the bare skin of Ezra's back, marking her territory, and both of them were just about to finally find their release when the door to the kitchen swung open.

"Aria- Wow! OK sorry, wow.. I'll just.. Wow.." Lauren turned back around and slammed the door behind her quicker than she'd opened it. Although Aria couldn't see, her head buried in Ezra's chest out of sheer shame, a smirk had planted itself onto Lauren's face, and she ran to her bedroom, giggling like a schoolgirl. Aria would never live this down.

Ezra helped Aria down from the counter and the two of them quickly re-dressed and made themselves look as presentable as possible, both in a frenzy of what had just happened. As soon as the door swung open, Ezra had frozen completely, knowing that unless he turned around, Lauren wouldn't know that Aria's mystery lover was himself. Aria had opted to hide, with Ezra's chest being the shield of her choice. With her lover still very much inside her, she couldn't exactly quickly run off and hide under the table, or jump out of the window, the latter being _extremely_ tempting in that moment.

"Shit, shit, this cannot be happening," Aria panicked, as Ezra buttoned up his pants and looked around for his shirt. "Here," she passed it to him from where she'd thrown it on the floor, as Ezra muttered a thanks.

"Hey, calm down, it's okay, she didn't see me, I can go now, we can hide this, it's fine-"

Aria raised an eyebrow as he spoke, "is that really what you want?" She looked hurt. After what they'd just shared, and he wanted to leave and never speak of it again?

"What? No, of course not. But.. is that not what you want? To hide this?"

"Yeah..." Aria didn't sound convincing. She sighed heavily, fumbling with her brunette locks, trying to rid it anything that screamed 'sex hair.' "No." Finally satisfied with her appearance, she closed the distance that was between her and Ezra. "I don't want to have to hide this."

Ezra smiled, and reached out to take her hand. "Me neither." He eyed her carefully. "So I guess we need to have a conversation with a certain someone." Aria bit her lip and nodded, agreeing before looking towards the door, and leading Ezra through it. She paused before shouting loudly towards her roommates bedroom, still holding tightly onto Ezra's hand.

"Lauren?"

* * *

 **Ok... so I'm sorry. I could make a thousand excuses but the truth is I've been busy with Uni for the past year and kind of lost the bug for writing if that makes sense? I don't know.. But PLL is almost over and I logged on tonight to read through stuff and I realised that I still had this chapter on here, so I'm posting! I can't promise regular uploads and I definitely suck at sticking to any schedule that I make, haha, but I promise that I will be posting more and hopefully can eventually finish this story (and maybe even the others I've abandoned, oops)!**

 **Anyways I hope you enjoyed! And I hope you can forgive me for being so crappy and waiting so long to update! I've missed you all a lot.**

 **ALSO SINCE I WAS GONE EZRIA GOT ENGAGED? HOW AMAZING we truly have been blessed *heart eyes* Now let's hope for a wonderful wedding (and hopefully Ezria babies too)!**

 **As always you can tweet me at adoringezriax too!**

 **\- Rachel :)**


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